Existentialism in waiting for godot
First of all v need to know about this term .
It is term in philosophy in literature , begin in 19th century while florished in 20th
Its philosophical views emphasize on individual existance, freedom & choice
An individual understands the world according to his own capacity or to his essence with freedom & chose the way ,the path further on the basis of experiences. Essence is one'z being, the very self of an individual..... For example what is the essence of a good book in literature? That it provides us guidance about lite... If it us a medical book then the essance ll not remain the same .... Good book of medic provides us bettr treatments of ailment
So every individual has its own essence few r good at paintings few r at some other art some r good learners while few r good teachers so her in the waiting for godot astragon is good at complaining 😁 & also a dull & quite a forgetful kind of a man , viladimir is a little different he is good at conversation & both of them r good for waiting😉
Pozzo is having a kind of command over lucky he is good at his master hood but in the end he lost that interest too
Lucky is good of being a captive or a slave he persists as a slave till the end & v ve noticed that even pozzo lost the interest in keeping him as a slave yet he prefer to remain a slave & put his cord in his blind masters hand
The other living thing in this play who has existence is a tree. Coz the course of the time is to move on while others feel about it as boring or blissful, dire or miserable. The tree in the end bore few leaves which refers that time is passing & the things actually having existence moving few of them chose to wait one chose to slavery while pozzo had lost all kinds of interest coz he became blind
So the basics of existentialism
Individual existence, freedom and choice
These forces work together in this play
But there is another aspect of the play which is the consideration of the play to "absurd theater"
When philosophy of existentialism & of absurd the art inter mingle it shape rather different
It shapes like this as "Human desires for meaning .... Vs.... Meaninglessness of existance".
In other words " life is meaningless & v r compell to find meanings
..
Its the conclusion of the entrance of existantialism' so philosophy in absurd theater
Life is meaningless for all the characters of the play yet they r striving to find the meaning in life
Cum idiology fits in the play he had established 6 stages initially to explain the life's meaninglessness
Or to avoid the pointlessness of life
1st suicide
One should kill oneself like viladimir & astragon at the end of 1st act decieded to but could not find the rope
2nd distraction
One must destract oneself by making love or eating or wandering
As both of them did they eat carrots or turnips to distract themselves from the boredom of life
3rd religion
They talked about bible but that is also proved futile
Pretend
Metatextual , played acting but again discarded
Artist
Viladimir try to sing but faild to get pass the time
Politics or to rule someone
Pozzo has a slave , power over lucky but in the end that was not not enough for him he lost the desire to rule him
...
And then the man name Cumus discarded all those and build a new one that is acceptance
..
They accept that he is not going to come yet went on waiting for him
By their own choice they were free to chose this or that but they select to wait him no spacific end😨
MA ENGLISH LITERATURE
Tuesday, 30 January 2018
Existentialism in waiting for godot
Famous quotations about poetry:
Famous quotations about poetry:
'Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.'
William Wordsworth
'A good poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightening five or six times; a dozen or two dozen times and he is great.'
Randall Jarrell
'Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.'
T.S.Eliot
'Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock; but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones.'
(To Miss Hannah More, who had expressed a wonder that the poet who had written Paradise Lost should write such poor sonnets.)
Samuel Johnson
'Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth.'
Philip Larkin
'Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.'
Percy Bysshe Shelley
'Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.'
Robert Frost
'...nine-tenths of what passes as English poetry is the product of either careerism, or keeping one's hand in: a choice between vulgarity and banality.'
Robert Graves
'Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.'
T.S.Eliot
'Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.'
Adrian Mitchell
'No man can read Hardy's poems collected but that his own life, and forgotten moments of it, will come back to him, in a flash here and an hour there. Have you a better test of true poetry?'
Ezra Pound
'I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is prose; words in their best order; - poetry; the best words in the best order.'
S.T.Coleridge
'Well, write poetry, for God's sake, it's the only thing that matters.'
e. e. cummings
'In my view a good poem is one in which the form of the verse and the joining of its parts seems light as a shallow river flowing over its sandy bed.'
Basho
(Translated by Lucien Stryk)
'Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something. Don't use such an expression as 'dim land of peace.' It dulls the image. It mixes an abstraction with the concrete. It comes from the writer's not realising that the natural object is always the adequate symbol. Go in fear of abstractions.'
Ezra Pound
'Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.'
Carl Sandburg
'Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things, and hence its importance.'
Matthew Arnold
'I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.'
Bob Dylan
'Poetry fettered fetters the human race.'
William Blake
'Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing
Did certain persons die before they sing.'
S.T.Coleridge
'The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an 'objective correlative'; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given , the emotion is immediately evoked.'
T.S.Eliot
'To break the pentameter, that was the first heave.'
Ezra Pound
'Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toe nails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.'
Dylan Thomas
'I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.'
Robert Frost
'The poet is the priest of the invisible.'
Wallace Stevens
'Poetry is, at bottom, a criticism of life.'
Matthew Arnold
'The poet's mind is in fact a receptacle for seizing and storing up numberless feelings, phrases, images, which remain there until all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together.'
T.S.Eliot
'As a guiding principle I believe that every poem must be its own sole freshly-created universe, and therefore have no belief in 'tradition' or a common myth-kitty or casual allusions in poems to other poems or poets, which last I find unpleasantly like the talk of literary understrappers letting you see they know the right people.'
Philip Larkin
'I think a poet is anybody who wouldn't call himself a poet.'
Bob Dylan
'You I am sure will forgive me for sincerely remarking that you might curb your magnanimity and be more of an artist, and 'load every rift' of your subject with ore.'
John Keats (in a letter to Shelley 1820)
'Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.'
Robert Frost
'I could no more define poetry than a terrier can define a rat.'
A. E. Housman
'If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.'
Emily Dickinson
'There are three things, after all, that a poem must reach: the eye, the ear, and what we may call the heart or the mind. It is most important of all to reach the heart of the reader.'
Robert Frost
'Modesty is a virtue not often found among poets, for almost every one of them thinks himself the greatest in the world.'
Miguel de Cervantes
'Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose-petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.'
Don Marquis
'Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.'
Percy Bysshe Shelley (A Defence of Poetry)
'I've had it with these cheap sons of bitches who claim they love poetry but never buy a book.'
Kenneth Rexroth
'Poets aren't very useful. / Because they aren't consumeful or very produceful.'
Ogden Nash
'I believe that every English poet should read the English classics, master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them, travel abroad, experience the horrors of sordid passion, and - if he is lucky enough - know the love of an honest woman.'
Robert Graves
'Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do.'
Stephen Spender
'It is always hard for poets to believe that one says their poems are bad not because one is a fiend but because their poems are bad.'
Randall Jarrell
Wednesday, 17 January 2018
Annaul Exam Imp Questions of English Literature
Annaul Exam Imp Questions of English Literature
YESTERDAY · PUBLIC
WILLIAM BLAKE
Wordsworth’s verdict about Blake (on his death) was that "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott". Elaborate with reference to Black’s works. (2000)
“All that is valuable in Blake is in his lyrics.” Discuss. (2001)
Critically discuss Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Song of Experience as Poetry. (2002)
Critically evaluate W. Blake as a writer of lyrical poetry. (2004)
The predominant almost exclusive theme of W.Blake's short poems is based on the feeling of a child's unpassioned soul, the tone is simple while the emotions possess a pure ardour. Discuss. (2006)
Critical notes: Romantic themes in W.Blake's poetry (2006)
Critical notes: Salient features of Blake’s poetry (2007)
Critical notes: The influence of the occult in the poems of Blake
(2008)
“For mercy has a human heart
Pity a human face
And love the human form divine
And Peace the human dress …
And all must love the human form,
In heathen Turk or Jew:
Where Mercy, Love and Pity Dwell
There God is dwelling too.”
Who wrote these verses? Comment on whether you think they are merely moral platitudes or spring from the poet’s sincerity. (2008)
JOHN KEATS
Short notes: Negative Capability (2000)
How the Odes of Keats reflect his growing concern with the relation between art and life, beauty and reality? (2001)
Discuss the image of ‘the Serpent Woman’ in Lamia and also image of ‘The Cruel Woman’ in La Belle Dame Sans Merci (Keats). (2002)
“Synaesthesia in Keats is a natural concomitant of other qualities of his poetry.” Discuss illustrating from his poems.
(2003)
Detailed notes: Keats as a writer of Odes (2004)
“Free from all moral degree, Keats’ poetry has the most compiling enchantment for lovers of pure beauty. Discuss.
(2005)
Keat's odes depict a skillful fusion of a seeking of beauty which endures and an impassioned meditation of death. Comment. (2006)
“Keats had no religion save the religion of beauty, no God save Pan; the Earth was his great consoler, and so passionately did he love her, with a love far more concrete and personal than that of Wordsworth or even Shelley”. Discuss. (2007)
Keats was a romantic poet who believed in the importance of sensation and its pleasures which included taste, touch and smell as well as hearing and sight. How far do you think he fulfills these beliefs in his poems? (2008)
Keats has been called ‘a mystic through the medium of the senses’. Examine the statement in relation to his major odes. (2009)
5critically analyze the proportion of imagination and reality in Keats's Odes (2010)
Keats' art is full of passion, the object of this desire is not the "intellectual beauty" of Shelley but is caused by the enchantment of the senses. Discuss (2011)
Does Keats escape from the realities of life?Justify your answer to this question through citation from his works. (2012)
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
Coleridge chooses the supernatural themes which he invests with the semblance of the truth. Comment considering some of his poems. (2011)
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Shelley’s weaknesses as a writer have always been evident; rhetorical abstraction; intellectual arrogance; and movements of intense self-pity. But in great poems like the "West Wind" or great prose works like "Defence", it is precisely these limitations that he transcends, and indeed explodes. Discuss. (2000)
In the best of Shelley’s poetry, there is a splendour of movement and realization of visionary intensity. Discuss it with reference to Shelley's poems. (2001)
Discuss Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound as an allegory of Man’s Emancipation in an Age of Hope and Deliverance. (2002)
Detailed notes: Adonis is a triumphant elegy. (2003)
Detailed notes: Shelley as revolutionary poet (2004)
Shelley was inspired by love, that is not limited to mankind only. Discuss. (2005)
Mathew Arnold describes Shelley “a beautiful and ineffectual angel beating in the void his luminous wings in vain”. What does he mean? Elaborate. (2007)
Critical notes: Shelley as a revolutionary poet (2008)
“To many readers Shelley’s genius is primarily lyrical: which commonly implies emotional. This is very doubtful – intense and uremitting intellectual activity seems to have been the main characteristic of his mind”. Justify or refute this remark by Graham Hough illustrating from the poems you have read. ( 2009 )
Write a critical note on Shelley's Utopianism (2010)
Shelley's life was one of passionate devotion to intellect; his poems show a philosophical and social force working in the same direction. Illustrate giving examples. (2011)
What is the relationship between Shelley's. 'Love's Philosophy' and the 'Idea of Romanticism'? (2012)
JOHN STUART MILL
Discuss J. S. Mill as an important figure in British empiricism. (2000)
What is the principal Quest of J. S. Mill’s mind? Give an analytical study of his thought in support of your arguments.
(2002)
MARY ANNE EVANS AKA GEORGE ELIOT
George Eliot is generally credited with changing the nature of the English Novel. Discuss the change with reference to the novelists’ works. (2000)
Discuss the Ending of George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss as a manipulated ending to a narrative directed by cause-and-effect. (2002)
Do you think that George Eliot is the first English novelist who has shown tremendous psychological insight? (2005)
Critical notes: Conflict between love and duty in G.Eliot (2006)
In what way do we consider George Eliot as the first modern novelist in the English Literature? Discuss. (2007)
Critical notes: Characterization in the novels of George Eliot
(2008)
George Elliot's works depict her firm grasp of social relations.Discuss in detail.
(2012)
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Short notes: Substance of Shakespearean Tragedy (2000)
Describe "Hamlet" as one of the revenge plays in English Literature. (2000)
Hamlet suffers and suffers greatly. Can you account for his suffering? (2001)
Critically analyze Hamlet’s delay problem. (2002)
‘T. S. Eliot considered Hamlet to be an artistic failure.’ Do you agree? Give reasons for your answers. (2003)
Discuss Shakespeare’s concept of tragedy with special reference to ‘Hamlet’. (2004)
Of all the plays it is the longest and is precisely one on which Shakespeare spent most pains, yet left on it superfluous and inconsistent scenes. Substantiate statement with at least five superfluous and inconsistent scenes. (2005)
‘Hamlet touches on many problems, that troubled the protagonists, soul, like vengeance, suicide, love, without offering a solution for anyone.’ Discuss. (2007)
“In Hamlet we see a great, an almost enormous intellectual activity and a proportionate aversion to real action consequent upon it.” Examine this remark by Coleridge. (2008)
“The time is out of joint! O cursed Sprite
That ever I was born to set it right.”
Explain why Hamlet feels so. (2009 )
"Frailty thy name is woman" .Explain why hamlet feels so? ( 2010)
Shakespeare draws the images of nature not laboriously but luckily, when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too. Illustrate, giving examples from characterisation in Hamlet ( 2011 )
Throughout the play,Hamlet claims to be feigning madness,but his portrayal of madness is so intense and so convincing that many readers believe that Hamlet actually slips into insanity at certain moments in the play.Do you think this is true,or is Hamlet merely Play-acting insanity?Substantiate your view point through evidence from the play. (2012)
EARNEST MILLER HEMINGWAY
Hemingway is preoccupied with the human predicament and a moral code that might satisfactory control it. Discuss with reference to his ‘The Old Man and the Sea’. (2001)
Hemingway’s ‘Old Man and the Sea’ has been best describe as ‘A heroic story’ filled with light from Sea and Sky, and sympathy with men and their mysterious fellow-creatures’. Discuss. (2004)
The Old Man and the Sea. AT 26531 words by Author’s laborious count it is perhaps his most sustained attempt to unite the actual and symbolic under one continuous narrative roof. Comment critically. (2005)
Portray the character of Santiago; do you find a combination of the actual and the symbolic in it? (2007)
Draw a complete picture of the Hemmingway hero, keeping in mind ‘The Old Man and the Sear’ in mind. (2011)
'A man can be destroyed but not defeated' is well depicted by Hemingway in "Old Man and the Sea". Discuss in detail.
(2012)
JANE AUSTEN
"Pride and Prejudice" and Jane Austen is a novel with limited range. Discuss . (2000)
It is said of Jane Austen that she involves the ‘Critical Intelligence’ of her readers. The prevailing interest is not only in ‘aesthetic delight’ but also in a sense of moral conviction. How far is this true of her “Pride and Prejudice”? (2001)
Short notes: Jane Austen’s novels are the work of a miniaturist. (2001)
“Jane Austen’s view of life is the view of the eighteenth century civilization of which she was the last exquisite blossom. One might call it the moral realistic view. Jane Austen was profoundly moral.” (David Cecil). Elaborate. (2002)
Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice’ has been described as a fairy tale, in which deserving girl gets her prince. Would you say this was a good description? Give reasons for your answer.
(2003)
Jane Austen’s clear sighted eyes read through the inner minds of those who live around her, just as if those minds were transparent. Comment on her art of characterization. (2007)
“Faithful Observation, personal detachment, and a fine sense of ironic comedy are among Jane Austen’s Chief Characteristics as a writer.” Discuss and illustrate from ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
(2008)
“Here is a limited world; but she interprets it with the penetrating insight of the creative artist”. Discuss this remark about Jane Austen in the light of Pride and Prejudice. ( 2009 )
Discuss the significance of the title of Jane Austen's " pride and Prejudice". (2010)
Jane Austen’s clear-sighted eyes read through the inner minds of those who live around her or those whom she invents, just as if those minds were transparent. Discuss her characterization in Pride and Prejudice in the light of this remark. (2011)
Jane Austin's writing is a vivid account of her understanding of the human behaviour, Illustrate the truth from her novel "Pride and Prejudice". (2012)
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
W.B. Yeats was a Romantic Poet. Discuss with reference to his major Poems. (2000)
How does Yeats create ‘terrible’ beauty out of his imagery?
(2001)
What does Byzantium symbolize in “Sailing to Byzantium”? Justify or refute Stocks’ remark that Yeats’ poetry is a battle ground for the clash of opposite with reference to “Sailing to Byzantium”. (2002)
Give briefly a critical appreciation of ‘Among School Children’ – Yeats. (2003)
Write critical note on major themes of Yeats’ later poetry with special reference to ‘Sailing to Byzantium’, ‘Among School Children’ and ‘The Second Coming’. (2004)
W. B. Yeats works deal intensely with three basic urges. List each urge elaborately. (2005)
“His poetry possesses an imaginative mysticism, an essential attribute of Celticism, he has the ability to efface the outlines of material objects in a dreamy mistiness.” Dilate upon Yeats’ poetry, in the light of this remark. (2007)
‘Yeats’ symbols, like his mask, by their triple reference to self, world, and spirit achieve on the aesthetic plane a unity of bring impossible in life. Interpret Yeats’ Poem ‘BYZANTIUM’ in the light of this remark. (2008)
Stock says of ‘The Second Coming’ that in this poem Yeats sets his own age in the perspective of eternity and condenses a whole philosophy of history into it so that it has the force of Prophecy’. Discuss. (2009)
"The Second coming" Yeats presents the idea of civilization headed by the "Rough Beast". Discuss (2010)
Yeats work is thoroughly steeped in imaginative mysticism which is the essential attribute of celticism. Discuss in relation to his poems you have read. (2011)
Is "The Second Coming" definitely a ""visionary poem"?Is yes describe what Yeats vision is? (2012)
ROBERT JOHN BROWNING
“People are Browning’s passion: men and women, revealed through their ambitions and failures, love and hatred.” Discuss with reference to his poems. (2001)
Browning’s Dramatic monologue. (2002)
Detailed notes: Browning’s Obscurity. (2003)
Discuss Browning’s monologues as beautiful psychological analysis of characters belonging to different countries. (2004)
Detailed notes: Robert Browning’s interest in psychological analysis of characters from different countries. (2005)
Critical notes: The use of the dramatic monologue by Robert Browning (2006)
Browning had a “robust optimism” unlike the other Victorian poets who were worriers and doubters. Do you agree with this? Explain your answer through examples of Browning’s poetry. (2008)
Write a detailed critical note on Browning’s Dramatic Monologue with special reference to ‘The Last Ride Together’ and ‘My Last Duchess’. ( 2009 )
' Browning did not invent the 'dramatic monologue ' but made it particularly his own'. Discuss
(2010)
Browning's art reflects an intellectual curiosity, a systematic quest of truth and desire for rationality characteristic of his age. Give detailed comments. (2011)
Robert Browning belongs to the Victorian age. Justify the statement. (2012)
CHARLES JOHN HUFFAM
DICKENS
Short notes: Humour and pathos in Dicken’s novels. (2001)
Short notes: Dickens’ Under World (2002)
Are ‘Dickens the humorist’ and ‘Dickens the reformer’ complementary or hostile to each other? Discuss in detail.
(2003)
It is said, “Dickens has his own sentimental way of solving social problems”. Discuss with examples. (2004)
Dickens set so personal a stamp on his books that at every turn he seemed to be an innovator. Discuss. (2005)
'The one gift necessary to the great Novelist is the capacity to create living characters'. Discuss any two novels by Dickens in the light of this comment. (2006)
Dickens’ novels reflect the contemporary Victorian urban society with all its conflicts and disharmonies, both physical and intellectual. Discuss. (2007)
How far do the stories of Dickens reflect the social evils of the Victorian Age? Explain with reference to any two of his novels. (2008)
Do you agree with the view that Dickens is a social Novelist? Discuss with reference to his major novels. (2010)
Dickens writes of the lower middle class not as a detached observer, but as one on their own level and instinctive fraternity can be traced in his novels. Discuss. (2011)
Discuss Charles Dickens as a critic of his age. (2012)
CHARLES LAMB
Lamb seldom permitted his profounder views of life to appear above the humorous, pathetic and ironical surface of his writings. Discuss with reference to his "Essays". (2000)
‘Above all Charles Lamb was a refined humanist whose smile could be both satirist and tender.’ Discuss this statement with reference to his essays.
(2001)
How does the Romantic Sensibility appear in Charles Lamb’s Essays? (2002)
‘Lambs’ essays are lyric poems in prose.’ How far this remark is true? Illustrate with special reference to ESSAYS of Elia.
(2003)
Write a Critical note on Charles Lamb as a prose writer. In what particular ways was he different from the prose writers of his age? Give examples. (2004)
Critical notes: Charles Lamb as a prose writer (2006)
Charles Lambs’ essays are called ‘Lyric Poems in Prose’. Give your own comments on this statement referring to Lambs’ Essays of Elia’. (2009)
Above all Charles Lamb was a refined humanist whose smile could be both satiric and tender". Elaborate the truth of this statement. (2012)
THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT
Discuss the artistic and emotional aspects in ‘The Waste Land’ by Eliot. (2000)
Is ‘The Waste Land’ a public or private poem? (2001)
Detailed notes: Tradition and Individual Talent. (2003)
As a lover of English literature, what impresses you in T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’? Give your analysis. (2003)
T. S. Eliot claims universally for his (The Wasteland), but many critics disagree with it. Discuss.
(2004)
To what extent T. S. Eliot claim is justified to have claimed the universality for the wasteland, when there exists a mounting wave of criticism by other critics? Give your objective views. (2005)
“Nothing else so truly reflects the age and redeem it.” How far is it a just remark about T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land”? (2008)
Complex,Satiric,full of symbolism and illusions to famous works of literature,The Waste Land is a landmark of the 20th Century.Discuss in detail.
(2012)
SAMUEL BARCLAY BECKETT
“Some of Pozzo’s speeches go beyond what seems dramatically plausible in a decaying boss-figure.” Substantiate from your reading of the play ‘Waiting for Godot’.
(2002)
Discuss briefly the universality of text ‘Waiting for Godot’ – Samuel Backett: Word Master.
(2003)
In Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot the pattern for waiting is an ingenious combination of expectations and let downs, of uncertainty and of gradual run down without end. How far do you agree with this view? ( 2009 )
Beckett's "waiting for Godot " presents nothingness, uncertainty and hopelessness of modern man. Discuss (2010)
LORD ALFRED TENNYSON
Short notes: Tenny as a consummate craftsman in verse. (2001)
“Tennyson worked with words like a jeweler, weighing them against each other, tasting their luster, placing them in their foil; yet they are mostly current coinage.” Discuss. (2003)
JOHN RUSKIN
What was the general, social, economic and moral atmosphere in the Victorian age? Write your answer with reference to the writings of Ruskin. (2001)
Short notes: Ruskin’s Social Criticism (2002)
‘Ruskin founded in England what was really a new religion, wherein the quest for beauty in the daily lie of all, even the most humble, become a sort of duty.’ Discuss. (2003)
Ruskin expressed his ideas in a magnified poetic and decorative prose. Discuss with examples.
(2005)
Critical notes: Ruskin’s prose style (2007)
Discuss the roles of Ruskin and Carlyle in the development of Victorian prose. (2010)
OSCAR FINGAL O'FLAHERTIE WILLS WILDE
Short notes: Oscar Wilde’s Ballad of Rending Goal (2002)
Critical notes: Depiction of upper class society in the plays of Oscar Wilde (2008)
JONATHAN SWIFT
Do you agree that Swift is a misanthrope in his ‘Gulliver’S Travels’? Why? (2000)
Comment on Swift’s policy that imperfections in nature are of stirring up human industry, with reference to his ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. (2001)
Swifts’ Gulliver’s Travel is a ‘mock utopia’. Explain. (2002)
Jonathan Swift became famous for his political writing. Gulliver’s Travels as an entertaining political story, but it became very popular as a tale for young people. Give examples from any one of the tales you remember vividly.
(2003)
Write short notes on Jane Austen and Swift separately. As you have seen them in “Pride and Prejudice” and “Gulliver Travels”. (2005)
'Gulliver's Travel' "expresses despair or that its import is nihilistic, is radically to misread the book". Justify or reject the statement. (2006)
Critical notes: Swift as a satirist
(2007)
Discuss ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ as a mock epic. (2008)
“Gulliver himself is a touchstone, a standard, a reporting agent, but he is not a person”. Explain and discuss with reference to Gulliver’s Travels. ( 2009 )
Do you agree with the view that Swift's " the Gulliver's travels" symbolizes the liners turbulences of Human Being.
(2010)
In Gulliver’s Travels Swift dissects the English political life with a corrosive satire. Elaborate (2011)
Swift's irony reaches its crescendo in the fourth voyage of Gulliver. Elaborate (2012)
THOMAS HARDY
“The novels of Hardy are of intensely dramatic and epic nature; his characters move progressively towards a crisis.” Discuss it with reference to his novels. (2001)
Short notes: Significance of the ROAD in Hardy’s novels. (2002)
Detailed notes: Hardy’s characters are subservient to plot. (2003)
It is said by C. Rickett. “In his earlier writing, Sweetness and bitterness are Contrasted but in his later novels of Hardy, the gloom is needlessly intensified”. Discuss with examples. (2004)
Detailed notes: The concept of fate in Hardy’s novels. (2005)
In ' 'Tess', Hardy has rebelled against tradional and orthodox views'. Comment. (2006)
Hardy is neither a feminist, nor a misogynist, but a realist. How far is this statement true? Discuss. (2007)
Do you believe that it was Hardy’s intention to depict Tess as a victim of divine sadism? In your opinion how successful was he in creating feelings of anger, frustration and resentment in the reader? (2008)
Hardy is neither an optimist nor a pessimist. He is essentially a meliorist. Discuss in relation to Hardy’s novels that you have read. ( 2009 )
Hardy's works portray fate or destiny as malignant and cruel agent of nature lurking at the prospect of human well-being.Discuss Critically. (2012)
ROBERT LEE FROST
Aunt Jennifer's Tiger - Adrienne Rich
Aunt Jennifer's Tiger - Adrienne Rich
Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.
Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.
When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.
MEANING OF DIFFICULT WORDS
1. Prance – to spring from the hind legs; to move by springing, as a horse.
2. Denizens – a) anything adapted to a new place, condition, etc., as an animal or plant not indigenous to a place but successfully naturalized.
b) an inhabitant; resident.
c) a person who regularly frequents a place
3. Sleek – smooth or glossy, as hair, an animal / well-fed or well-groomed.
4. Chivalric - the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, includingcourtesy,
generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms / gallant warriors or gentlemen
5. Ivory – the hard white substance, a variety of dentin, composing the main part of the tusks of the elephant, walrus, etc.
6. Ordeals – any extremely severe or trying test, experience, or trial.
7. Panel – a distinct portion, section, or division of a wall, wainscot, ceiling, door, shutter, fence, etc., especially of any surface sunk below or raised above the general level or enclosed by a frame or border.
POETIC / LITERARY DEVICES
1. Form This poem is a formal, structured lyric.
2. Structure It contains three stanzas of four lines each
3. Language Most of the words are short and simple everyday words. The sentences are simple in structure and all take two lines.
4. Diction The unusual word ‘denizens’ stands out and it shows how special the tigers are, unlike how Aunt Jennifer feels about herself. The word ‘chivalric’ shows that the tigers are proud and charming. It means they treat women with respect. The repetition of ‘prance’ [parade] is interesting and emphasises the happy, confident life of the tigers.
5. Full Stops and Commas Full stops are placed regularly at the end of every second line. The poem is controlled, just like its subject, Aunt Jennifer.
6. Comparison The tigers are compared to knights from the time of chivalry in the middle ages.
7. Imagery The main images are of Aunt Jennifer as a fearful wife and, secondly, the magnificent tigers she creates in her panel. Images of precious substances run through the poem: ‘topaz’, ‘ivory’ and the gold of ‘wedding band’.
8. Metaphor The poet compares the yellow stripes of the tigers to a precious stone, topaz.
9. Contrast [difference] The main contrasts are between nervous Aunt Jennifer and her confident tigers. Another contrast is between the strong yellow and green colours. The words ‘prancing’ and ‘fluttering’ contrast as well.
10. Mood/Atmosphere Fear is the main atmosphere in Aunt Jennifer’s life of ‘ordeals’ where her fingers tremble and show terror. An air of freedom and confidence dominates the atmosphere in her artistic creations. The men beneath the tree create an atmosphere of mystery. The image of Aunt Jennifer’s corpse from the future is a bit eerie or creepy.
11. Hyperbole [Exaggeration] The poet exaggerates the weight of her husband’s wedding ring to make a point about how dominating he is.
12. Paradox [apparent contradiction] Here a trembling and ‘mastered’ woman creates free and confident creatures in her artistic endeavours. ‘Fluttering’ fingers produce something that has ‘certainty’.
13. Tone The tone appears to be positive and cheerful when the poet describes the tigers. See the comment on sibilance below. The tone becomes sad and even creepy at times in describing the life of Aunt Jennifer.
14. Repetition The word ‘prance’ is repeated to emphasise the pride and freedom of the tigers. ‘Ringed’ echoes ‘wedding band’. There is repetition of various sounds as indicated in the next few bullet points.
15. Rhyme Every pair of lines rhyme, like the ‘een’ sound in ‘screen’ and ‘green’ at the end of the first two lines. The rhyme pattern for the poem is: aabb ccdd eeff. This rigid pattern mirrors the rigid life of Aunt Jennifer.
16. Assonance [similar vowel sound repetition] Note the long ‘i’ sound in ‘find’ the ivory’. This creates a sad or mournful effect.
17. Consonance [similar consonant sound repetition] Note the repeated ‘n’ sound in the first line and the ‘f’ sound in the first line of the second stanza.
18. Alliteration [repetition of consonant sounds at the start of nearby words] e.g ‘p’ in ‘prancing proud’ emphasises the feeling of confidence expressed in the tigers’ movements.
19. Sibilance [repetition of ‘s’ sound] Note how the five ‘s’ sounds in the first line create a smooth opening, suggesting an air of confidence within the artificial world of the panel.
STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS
Stanza 1: The relative, Aunt Jennifer, makes a panel with images of tigers parading proudly across it. The tigers are free, unlike their maker. Her panel contains animals that are happier and more confident than she is. There is a ‘certainty’ about them that their maker lacks in herself. Aunt Jennifer paints confident, proud tigers. They are assured and confident dwellers, ‘denizens’, of their green world. ‘Denizen’ suggests independent citizen. It would seem that Jennifer is not an independent citizen of her own world. She is instead a wife, weighed down by duties as we learn in the second stanza. Jennifer uses sharp and contrasting colours, sharp yellow against a green background. Her tigers are as bright as topaz, a yellow gem. Her picture contains an image of men under a tree, though the proud tigers show no fear of the men. This is mentioned to show that they differ from Jennifer, who lives in fear of her husband to some extent. The tigers remind the poet of knights, full of courtesy and style. Chivalric men respected their women and acted kindly towards them. Again, this seems to contrast with how ‘Uncle’ behaved towards Aunt Jennifer according to the second stanza.
Stanza 2: The poet describes Aunt Jennifer’s nervous hands struggling to pull the wool with her ivory needle. The word ‘fluttering’ suggests trembling. We get the impression of a frail woman who finds it hard to pull the needle. It is interesting that if her needle is made of ivory it may have come from an elephant’s tusk. Ivory is a bit like topaz, a precious material. As ivory involves the killing of elephants for their valuable tusks, it would seem that Jennifer may not care much for tigers in the wild or know much about their reality. Thus, her artwork is unrealistic. Perhaps the poet feels it is a pointless and empty type of art. The poet humorously suggests that Aunt Jennifer’s fingers find it hard to hold the weight of her wedding ring and then pull the needle at the same time. The wedding band is another reference to a precious substance, probably gold. By mentioning that it is ‘Uncle’s wedding band’, the poet suggests that Uncle owns Jennifer too and that as a female she is the property of her husband. The words ‘massive’ and ‘heavily’ suggest Aunt Jennifer lives a demanding sort of life in which she has to attend to her husband’s needs and fulfill his commands. As a result she is somewhat worn out in her old age.
Stanza 3: The poet predicts that, when Aunt Jennifer dies, her hands will look worn from all her needlework as well as the hard time she has trying to please her husband. Aunt Jennifer is ‘ringed’, trapped in her marriage and controlled like an animal. Her husband is her master. Her artwork will live on after her as a reminder of the dreams she never fulfilled.
CRITICAL APPRECIATION
Adrienne Rich's "Aunt Jennifer Tigers" is a poem that concerns itself mainly with a woman struggling to accept the indignities of her daily life while being insatiably focused on attaining some sense of immortality once that life ends. Aunt Jennifer must find a way to deal with her unhappy and submissive station in life, and she does so by sewing exciting and memorable works of art. Sewing is her escape and in this case she's escaping to a jungle where wild animals rule the land and never show fear. The tigers created by Aunt Jennifer are beasts demanding respect from even their predators. This demand for respect is something that Aunt Jennifer is incapable of doing for herself. In the meantime, she will deal with her problems by escaping from them.
This escape into her art is shown vividly in the opening stanza of the poem where the imagery is vibrant and alive and shows what Aunt Jennifer is capable of doing; it also provides a glimpse into Aunt Jennifer's subconscious in its portrayal of animals who don't allow themselves to be victimized by anyone. The tigers are literally prancing across the screen. The image of something prancing immediately brings to mind a being that is confident and self-assured and happy; all things that Aunt Jennifer is not. The tigers are not just simply tigers, of course. They are "Bright topaz denizens of a world of green" (2). The use of colors implies that Aunt Jennifer's tigers and their land are more vital and enjoy a sense of freedom far greater than she. Yellow connotes the sun and fierce energy, while green reminds one of spring and rebirth. Aunt Jennifer is longing for both energy and rebirth. She cannot find it at home so she goes on journeys into her sewing. The tigers are foreign and that also brings speculation that Aunt Jennifer would like to travel, which is just another form escape. That the tigers sense no fear of the predatory hunters is key. The assumption here is that Aunt Jennifer is afraid of her own predator: her husband. He has hunted her and captured her and keeps her in a cage from which her only escape is her sewing. The tigers, on the other hand, do not live in fear. No, rather they pace about as if they were kings of their domain. They are certain of their place in the world and will allow no one or nothing to interfere. The tigers are to Aunt Jennifer the ultimate creatures of self-actualization. They are exactly what she wishes she could be herself. And in creating them so resplendently, they will live on long after their creator has passed on.
Aunt Jennifer is doing what she can to cope with an unhappy lifestyle and this melancholy is made apparent in the second stanza of the poem, which deals in ambiguous images of rapidity and heaviness to symbolize the need to escape from the stagnancy of her marriage. Aunt Jennifer's fingers are "fluttering through her wool" (5) in the first line of the stanza and this suggests that Aunt Jennifer is trying to sew as fast as her fingers will allow. Complex questions arise from this simple description of Aunt Jennifer sewing. Why does she need to create something so fast? Exactly what is she afraid of that would spur her on so? Perhaps her fear is that she will not live long enough to finish the creation. Perhaps she fears she will be interrupted in the middle of her work. She is trying to do it as fast as she can, but then begin the images of weight, of carrying a burden. The fact that the "ivory needle is hard to pull" (6) insinuates that she's been sewing for a long time. In fact, sewing is probably what she does most of the day when she's not caring for her husband. The marriage to the speaker's Uncle is perhaps Aunt Jennifer's greatest weight. After all, "The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band / Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand" (7-8). This bulk is probably more emotional and mental than physical. It is doubtful that Aunt Jennifer's wedding band itself weighs down her hand so much that she can't sew as fast as she'd like. The weight is probably one in which her marriage didn't turn out as she planned. Perhaps she wanted children and never had any. Certainly no mention is made in the poem of the speaker having cousins. Aunt Jennifer's marriage has most likely turned out to be her biggest disappointment and one that she would probably even like to escape. And for at least a little while escape she does, right into her sewing.
The final stanza argues for the successful grasping of a sense of immortality so eagerly sought by Aunt Jennifer. This final portion of the poem contains imagery that reflects back on the first two stanzas and completes the three-tiered approach to the poem as a consideration of the life-spirit of someone who has not led the life they wanted contrasted with the bid for a satisfactory afterlife. The stanza begins with a look forward to when Aunt Jennifer will no longer be alive and creating her artistic sewing pieces. The first line pointedly shows that Aunt Jennifer had terrified hands which "will lie / Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by" (9-10). The line clearly harkens back to the second stanza and its dealings with the burdens Aunt Jennifer lives under. What could possibly have terrified her hands? And what ordeals was she mastered by? The most obvious answer is made by connecting the ordeals back with the heavy weight of her wedding band spoken of in the second stanza. Aunt Jennifer is more than likely abused-at least emotionally-by her husband. She is quite literally mastered by her husband. Such is the need for escape into her art. The final two lines of the stanza-and the poem-reflect back on the very opening line. The tigers are still in the panel that she made and they continue to prance, "proud and unafraid (12). The tigers that she fought so hard to create despite the overwhelming burden of her life will, indeed, continue to prance forever. By the end of the poem, Aunt Jennifer has fulfilled her need and achieved her own little sense of immortality. Her life was not in vain, she created something out of nothing, something that will live on well after she is dead and buried.
The structure of the play "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" is built upon the give and take of showing a woman's ability to create an everlasting work of art while dealing with the abject humiliation of a living a life that is built on worries and woe. In three small stanzas of just four lines each, the poem craftily builds toward the welcome conclusion that no matter how much life has to dish out to a person and bring a person down, each of us can still achieve some small measure of respect and immortality if we just have the discipline to do what we know we can do well. If a person can find out what it is that he does well, he can achieve it and create for himself something that will last long after he have created it. Aunt Jennifer successfully beat back the load that she was forced to carry and created a small wedge of life everlasting for herself.
Themes
1. Marriage is unequal due to male domination/Inequality
The woman at the centre of the poem, Aunt Jennifer, is a nervous and fearful wife. She lacks inner conviction or ‘certainty’, unlike the tigers she portrays. Aunt Jennifer is ‘mastered’ in her life. She lives a life of inequality. She is so nervous that her fingers ‘flutter’ through the wool she is using in her tapestry or panel. The poet portrays the marriage of Jennifer as an unhappy one for her. Aunt Jennifer feels the burden of duty and obedience. This is shown by the symbol of the wedding ring that she wears. It is described as her husband’s property: ‘Uncle’s wedding band’. It ‘sits heavily’ on her hand because he dominates her life. Her life with her husband is desctibed as a life of ‘ordeals’. It is shown that Jennifer is terrified in her marriage. Her husband may be fiercer to her than the tigers she produces in her artwork. The poem therefore provides a negative picture of marriage. The poem is probably saying that the ‘Uncle’ or husband is behaving like a tiger, and the tigers are ‘chivalric’ like the husband should be. Each world is the reverse of what it should be.
2. The world of art is happier than the real world/Dream versus Reality
Aunt Jennifer’s hobby is making designs and pictures from wool. Jennifer produces wool tapestries that she places on panels. The creatures she places there are free and proud, the opposite to herself. She is ‘ringed’ or mastered in marriage and therefore she is not free, but controlled. It seems that she creates a happier looking world than the one she lives in. She makes precise and brightly coloured pictures like the sharp yellow tigers of the poem, pictured against a green background. These bright contrasting colours are probably much more vivid than Jennifer’s everyday world. Her artistic work will live on after she dies, as, according to the poet, her tigers will ‘go on prancing’. The figures she creates are stronger and happier than she is. They are proud and ‘prance’ about, unlike their creator, who is nervous and fears her husband. The word ‘prance’ or parade contrasts sharply with ‘fluttering’, meaning trembling. The tigers do not fear the men the aunt places under some trees in her tapestry. Therefore, the imaginary tigers produced by Aunt Jennifer live a type of proud and free life that she can only dream about. It is a ‘chivalric’ world, one where gentlemen treat women with great respect. Yet this is also a false world, as real tigers live out a battle for survival of the fittest, where the strongest dominate. Perhaps Aunt Jennifer uses art as an escape from her troubles. In her artwork Jennifer imagines the kind of life she would have liked.
***
The tigers display in art the values that Aunt Jennifer must repress or displace in life: strength, assertion, fearlessness, fluidity of motion. And the poem's conclusion celebrates the animal images as a kind of triumph, transcending the limited conditions of their maker's life. Accepting the doctrine of "ars longa, vita brevis," Rich finds in her character's art both persistence and compensation; she sees the creations as immortalizing the hand that made them, despite the contrary force of the oppressive structure of Aunt Jennifer's conventional marriage, as signified by the ring that binds her to her husband. This doctrine is utterly consonant with what was, according to Rich, "a recurrent theme in much poetry I read [in those days]. . . the indestructibility of poetry, the poem as vehicle for personal immortality" (Blood 168). And this more or less explicit connection helps show how deeply implicated Rich herself was in Aunt Jennifer's situation and her achievement, despite the "asbestos gloves" of a distancing formalism that "allowed me to handle materials I couldn't pick up barehanded" (Lies 40-41).
The problem, however, is that the tigers are clearly masculine figures--and not only masculine, but heroic figures of one of the most role-bound of all the substructures of patriarchy: chivalry. Their "chivalric certainty" is a representation by Aunt Jennifer of her own envisioned power, but it is essentially a suturing image, at once stitching up and reasserting the rift between her actual social status an her vision. Aunt’s name, after all, echoes with the sound of Queen Guinevere's; her place in chivalry is clear. Her tigers are only Lancelots, attractive because illicit, but finally seducing her to another submission to the male. So long as power can be envisioned only in terms that are culturally determined as masculine, the revolutionary content of the vision, which was all confined to a highly mediated and symbolic plane in any case, will remain insufficient. Indeed, the fact that assertion against the patriarchy is here imagined only in terms set by the patriarchs may be seen as this poem's version of the tigers' "fearful symmetry." And the "Immortal hand or eye" that framed their symmetry is not Aunt Jennifer's framing her needlework, but patriarchy's, framing Aunt Jennifer.
Saturday, 13 January 2018
Chaucer and the Prologue to the Canterbury tales
Introduction:
Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is an anthology of 24 tales written in Middle English.
Background:
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote this story in the late 1300’s but never finished it. He wrote in the native language or vernacular of the Medieval period in Britain called Middle English. Chaucer's original plan was for over 100 stories, but only 24 were completed, some of which had already been written for earlier works.
Overview:
👉Fragment I:
General Prologue
The General Prologue is a basic descriptive list of the twenty-nine people who become pilgrims to journey to Canterbury. The pilgrims, who come from all layers of society, tell stories to each other to kill time while they travel to Canterbury. The Host, Harry Bailey decides that every pilgrim will tell 2 stories on the road to Canterbury and other 2 on the way back. The person he judges to tell the best tale will receive a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark when they return.
Knight
The Knight's tale is about two young knights that strive for Emily, who is the sister of queen Hippolyta who is married to duke Theseus, lord and governour of Athens. The story contains many aspects of knighthood, including discussions on love, courtly manners, brotherhood and loyalty. Several fights and battles are fought and even foreign kings are brought in to emphasize the epical meaning and shape of the last battle. Finally, death is the end of every worldly sore.
Miller
The Miller's tale is about an old carpenter who has a young wife and is duped by the suitor of his wife. The suitor is eventually duped by another suitor.
Reeve
All people find the story amusing except the grumbling Reeve, who takes the story personally as he is a carpenter by trade. The Host urges the Reeve to stop grumbling and sermonising and start telling a tale. The Reeve obeys and tells a tale about a haughty miller who deceives two students but is deceived in return: the deceiver is deceived.
Cook
The Cook’s Tale is an unfinished fragment and deals with the story of an apprentice cook named Perkin who loses his job because of his loose habits. The dismissal however has no effect on Perkin and he moves in with a like-minded friend whose wife is a prostitute.
👉Fragment II:
Man of Law
The Man of Law's Tale is about Constance, the daughter of the emperor of Rome. She, a devoted Christian, is shipped to Syria to marry the sultan who is willing to convert to Christianity to overcome legal difficulties. However, the sultan's mother is not amused by her son's conversion and pushes Constance back into the sea. Despite her sufferings, Constance remains faithful and even converts the hosts that give her shelter. At the end, her Christian faith is her protection and her reward.
👉Fragment III:
Wife of Bath
The Wife of Bath presents herself as the authority on marriage and marital life. She comments on the social and legal position of women in marriage and daily life. She claims she has her knowledge from experience, not from scriptural authority. Rather than rejecting scriptural authority, she appeals to logic thus rejecting too strict interpretations of scriptural rules and commandments.
Friar
The Friar's tale is about the trade and earnings of a nameless summoner who attempts to blackmail and old widow by serving a false summons. Eventually the summoner is cursed to hell by the old woman.
Summoner
The Summoner's tale is about a greedy friar who has no shame cajoling churchly donations out of his people and friends. The Summoner obviously seeks some revenge for the Friar's tale.
👉Fragment IV:
Clerk
The Clerk's tale is about a marquis called Walter. Lord Walter is a bachelor who is asked by his subjects to marry in order to provide a heir. Lord Walter assents and marries a poor girl called Griselda. After some time, Walter starts testing Griselda's patience. Ultimately, the clerk's tale is about unconditional female submissiveness.
Merchant
The Merchant tells a tale about a sixty-year old knight who decides he should marry a wife. The meaning of love, marriage, truth and faithfulness are being discussed.
👉Fragment V:
Squire
The Squire’s Tale is an unfinished fragment. King Cambyuskan receives a magic horse, sword, mirror and ring as gifts from the king of Araby and India. The horse has the ability to transport a man anywhere he wants to go in a flash. The sword could magically cut through the thickest armor and even heal wounds. The mirror can reveal future misfortunes and tragedies and the ring imparts to its wearer the power to understand the speech of birds. The king’s daughter wears the ring and hears a falcon miserably lamenting her betrayal by her fickle lover. She takes the poor falcon to court and nurses its self-inflicted wounds.
Franklin
The Franklin's tale is about a knight called Arviragus who is married with a lady called Dorigen. During Arviragus' absence, a squire called Aurelius attempts to court Dorigen. She thinks to get rid of him by demanding something apparently impossible. When Aurelius however performs the impossible, Dorigen is faced with a major dilemma: either being faithfull to her husband and break her promise or being unfaithfull to her husband and keep her promise.
👉Fragment VI:
Physician
The Physician's tale about a knight called Virginius has a wife and a beautiful virtuous fourteen-year-old daughter called Virginia. One day, a false judge named Appius sees Virginia and decides he will have her regardless the cost. However, Virginius rather kills his daughter instead of handing her over to the judge.
Pardoner
The Pardoner's tale about three frequently drinking young men who become acquainted with the killings of Death. They decide to find, stop and kill Death.
👉Fragment VII:
Shipman
The Shipman tells a story about a merchant, his wife and a frequently visiting monk called Dan John, who pretends to be the merchant's cousin. The wife secretly asks the monk to lend her money. The monk gladly promises to bring her the money she asks. The interchangeability and exchangeability of sex and money are emphatically elaborated in the Shipman's Tale.
The Prioress
The Prioress Tale is a hymn to Mary and Jesus, Christianity, motherhood and anti-Semitism.
Sir Thopas
Chaucer tells a story about a knight called Sir Thopas who wishes to love a fairy queen. Sir Thopas rides to fairyland on horseback, but finds the entrance blocked by a three-headed giant called Sir Oliphant who challenges Sir Thopas to fight. Sir Thopas returns home to get his gear and rides out again.
Melibee
Chaucer then relates the Tale of Melibee. Melibee’s enemies attack his house and his daughter is injured. But his wife, Dame Prudence persuades him to banish all thoughts of revenge and to forgive his enemies.
Monk
The Monk mentions and describes biblical, classical, Greec, Roman and worldy leaders who all have one thing in common: once they were great, but fortune has abandoned them.
The Nun's Priest
The Nun's Priest's tale is about a rooster called Chauntecleer that lives with seven chickens and several other animals in the yard of a poor old widow.
👉Fragment VIII:
Second Nun
The Second Nun's tale is about the life of Saint Cecilia who refuses to worship Roman gods. Still being a virgin, she is arrested, interrogated, executed and martyred for her Christian beliefs.
Canon’s Yeoman
The Canon's Yeoman’s Tale deals with his own experiences during the practice of alchemy. The tale recounts how a Canon duped a priest into believing that he could transform mercury into silver and sold him the fake formula for forty pounds.
👉Fragment IX:
Manciple
The Manciple's tale is about Phoebus, who possesses a white crow. Phoebus has a wife who is (symbolically) kept in a golden cage. Despite his efforts to keep his wife clean, she commits adultery.
👉Fragment X:
Parson
The Parson’s Tale is the concluding tale. It is a very long prose sermon on the seven deadly sins. The story contains examples of the seven deadly sins and explanations, indicating what people need to do in order to get redemption.
👉Chaucer’s Retraction
Chaucer finishes the tales by a Retraction, asking the people that have been offended by the tales to blame it on his lack of manners and education, because he did not have immoral intentions and asked the people who found something useful in his stories to give all the credit for them to Christ. He retracts by a prayer for forgiveness for all his works narrating about secular and pagan characters, asking his readers to remember him for his homilies and his works about the lives of saints.
Friday, 12 January 2018
Existentialism in waiting for godot
Existentialism in waiting for godot
First of all v need to know about this term .
It is term in philosophy in literature , begin in 19th century while florished in 20th
Its philosophical views emphasize on individual existance, freedom & choice
An individual understands the world according to his own capacity or to his essence with freedom & chose the way ,the path further on the basis of experiences. Essence is one'z being, the very self of an individual..... For example what is the essence of a good book in literature? That it provides us guidance about lite... If it us a medical book then the essance ll not remain the same .... Good book of medic provides us bettr treatments of ailment
So every idividual has its own essance few r good at paintings few r at some other art some r good learners while few r good teachers so her in the waiting for godot astragon is good at complaining 😁 & also a dull & quite a forgetful kind of a man , viladimir is a little diffrent he is good at conversation & both of them r good for waiting😉
Pozzo is having a kind of comand over lucky he is good at his master hood but in the end he lost that interest too
Lucky is good of being a captive or a slave he persists as a slave till the end & v ve noticed that even pozzo lost the interest in keeping him as a slave yet he prefer ro remain a slave & put his cord in his blind masters hand
The othere living thing in this play who has existance is a tree. Coz the course of the time is to move on while others feel about it as boring or blissful, dire or miserable. The tree in the end bore few leaves which refers that time is passing & the things actually having existance moving few of them chose to wait one chose to slavery while pozzo had lost all kinds of interest coz he became blind
[1/13, 12:32 PM] Pu Naila Aun: So the basics of existentialism
Individual existance, freedom and choice
These forces work togather in this play
But there is another aspect of the play which is the considration of the play to "absurd theater"
When philosophy of existantialism & of absurd theart inter mingle it shaps rather diffrent
It shapes like this as "Human desires for meaning .... Vs.... Meaninglessness of existance".
In other words " life is meaningless & v r compell to find meanings
..
Its the conclusion of the enterance of existantialism's philosophy in absurd theater
Life is meaningless for all the charecters of the play yet they r striving to find the meaning in life
Comus'z idiology fits in the play he had established 6 stages initially to explain the life's meaninglessness
Or to avoid the mpointlessness of life
1st suicide
One should kill oneself like viladimir & astragon at the end of 1st act decieded to but could not find the rope
2nd distraction
One must destract oneself by making love or eating or wandering
As both of them did they eat carrots or turnips to distract themselves from the boredom of life
3rd religion
They talked about bible but that is also proved futile
Pretend
Metatextual , played acting but again discarded
Artist
Viladimir try to sing but faild to get pass the time
Politics or to rule someone
Pozzo has a slave , power over lucky but in the end that was not not enough for him he lost the desire to rule him
...
And then the man name Cumus discarded all those and build a new one that is acceptance
..
They accept that he is not going to come yet went on waiting for him
By their own choice they were free to chose this or that but they select to wait him no spacific end😨
Sylvia Plath: Poems Themes
Sylvia Plath: Poems Themes
Death
Death is an ever-present reality in Plath's poetry, and manifests in several different ways.
One common theme is the void left by her father's death. In "Full Fathom Five," she speaks of his death and burial, mourning that she is forever exiled. In "The Colossus," she tries in vain to put him back together again and make him speak. In "Daddy," she goes further in claiming that she wants to kill him herself, finally exorcising his vicious hold over her mind and her work.
Death is also dealt with in terms of suicide, which eerily corresponds to her own suicide attempts and eventual death by suicide. In "Lady Lazarus," she claims that she has mastered the art of dying after trying to kill herself multiple times. She sneers that everyone is used to crowding in and watching her self-destruct. Suicide, though, is presented as a desirable alternative in many of these works. The poems suggest it would release her from the difficulties of life, and bring her transcendence wherein her mind could free itself from its corporeal cage. This desire is exhilaratingly expressed in "Ariel," and bleakly and resignedly expressed in "Edge." Death is an immensely vivid aspect of Plath's work, both in metaphorical and literal representations.
Victimization
Plath felt like a victim to the men in her life, including her father, her husband, and the great male-dominated literary world. Her poetry can often be understood as response to these feelings of victimization, and many of the poems with a male figure can be interpreted as referring to any or all of these male forces in her life.
In regards to her father, she realized she could never escape his terrible hold over her; she expressed her sense of victimhood in "The Colossus" and "Daddy," using powerful metaphors and comparisons to limn a man who figured heavily in her psyche.
Her husband also victimized her through the power he exerted as a man, both by assuming he should have the literary career and through his infidelity. Plath felt relegated to a subordinate, "feminine" position which stripped from her any autonomy or power. Her poems from the "Colossus" era express her frustration over the strictures under which she operated. For instance, "A Life" evokes a menacing and bleak future for Plath. However, in her later poems, she seems finally able to transcend her status as victim by fully embracing her creative gifts ("Ariel"), metaphorically killing her father ("Daddy"), and committing suicide ("Lady Lazarus", "Edge").
Patriarchy
Plath lived and worked in 1950s/1960s England and America, societies characterized by very strict gender norms. Women were expected to remain safely ensconced in the house, with motherhood as their ultimate joy and goal. Women who ventured into the arts found it difficult to attain much attention for their work, and were often subject to marginalization and disdain. Plath explored and challenged this reductionist tendency through her work, offering poems of intense vitality and stunning language. She depicted the bleakness of the domestic scene, the disappointment of pregnancy, the despair over her husband's infidelity, her tortured relationship with her father, and her attempts to find her own creative voice amidst the crushing weight of patriarchy. She shied away from using genteel language and avoided writing only of traditionally "female" topics. Most impressively, the work remains poetic and artistic - rather than political - because of her willing to admit ambivalence over all these expectations, admitting that both perspectives can prove a trap.
Nature
Images and allusions to nature permeate Plath's poetry. She often evokes the sea and the fields to great effect. The sea is usually associated with her father; it is powerful, unpredictable, mesmerizing, and dangerous. In "Full Fathom Five," her father is depicted as a sea god. An image of the sea is also used in "Contusion," there suggesting a terrible sense of loss and loneliness.
She also pulled from her personal life, writing of horse-riding on the English fields, in "Sheep in Fog" and "Ariel." In these cases, she uses the activity to suggest an otherworldly, mystical arena in which creative thought or unfettered emotion can be expressed.
Nature is also manifested in the bright red tulips which jolt the listless Plath from her post-operation stupor, insisting that she return to the world of the living. Here, nature is a provoker, an instigator - it does not want her to give up. Nature is a ubiquitous theme in Plath's work; it is a potent force that is sometimes unpredictable, but usually works to encourage her creative output.
The self
Plath has often been grouped into the confessional movement of poetry. One of the reasons for this classification is that she wrote extensively of her own life, her own thoughts, her own worries. Any great artist both creates his or her art and is created by it, and Plath was always endeavoring to know herself better through her writing. She tried to come to terms with her personal demons, and tried to work through her problematic relationships. For instance, she tried to understand her ambivalence about motherhood, and tried to vent her rage at her failed marriage.
However, her exploration of herself can also be understood as an exploration of the idea of the self, as it stands opposed to society as a whole and to other people, whom she did not particularly like. Joyce Carol Oates wrote that even Plath's children seemed to be merely the objects of her perception, rather than subjective extensions of herself. The specifics of Plath's work were drawn from her life, but endeavored to transcend those to ask more universal questions. Most infamously, Plath imagined her self as a Jew, another wounded and persecuted victim. She also tried to engage with the idea of self in terms of the mind and body dialectic. "Edge" and "Sheep in Fog" explore her desire to leave the earthly life, but express some ambivalence about what is to come after. "Ariel" suggests it is glory and oneness with nature, but the other two poems do not seem to know what will happen to the mind/soul once the body is eradicated. This conflict - between the self and the world outside - can be used to understand almost all of Plath's poems.
The Body
Many of Plath's poems deal with the body, in terms of motherhood, wounds, operations, and death.
In "Metaphors," she describes how her body does not feel like it is her own; she is simply a "means" towards delivering a child. In "Tulips" and "A Life," the body has undergone an operation. With the surgery comes an excising of emotion, attachment, connection, and responsibility. The physical cut has resulted in an emotional severing, which is a relief to the depressed woman. "Cut" depicts the thrill Plath feels on almost cutting her own thumb off. It is suggested that she feels more alive as she contemplates her nearly-decapitated thumb, and watches the blood pool on the floor. "Contusion" takes things further - she has received a bruise for some reason, but unlike in "Cut," where she eventually seems to grow uneasy with the wound, she seems to welcome the physical pain, since the bruise suggests an imminent end to her suffering. Suicide, the most profound and dramatic thing one can do to one's own body, is also central to many of her poems.
Overall, it is clear that Plath was constantly discerning the relationship between mind and body, and was fascinated with the implications of bodily pain.
Motherhood
Motherhood is a major theme in Plath's work. She was profoundly ambivalent about this prescribed role for women, writing in "Metaphors" about how she felt insignificant as a pregnant woman, a mere "means" to an end. She lamented how grotesque she looked, and expressed her resignation over a perceived lack of options. However, in "Child," she delights in her child's perception of and engagement with the world. Of course, "Child" ends with the suggestions that she knows her child will someday see the harsh reality of life. Plath did not want her children to be contaminated by her own despair. This fear may also have manifested itself in her last poem, "Edge," in which some critics have discerned a desire to kill her children and take them with her far from the terrors of life. Other poems in her oeuvre express the same tension. Overall, Plath clearly loved her children, but was not completely content in either pregnancy or motherhood.
RAPE OF THE LOCK text line 445 onwards in urdu/hindi
Wednesday, 10 January 2018
Dr. Faustus as a Tragic Hero
Dr. Faustus as a Tragic Hero
Dr. Faustus the protagonist of Christopher Marlowe's great tragedy can be considered as a tragic hero similar to the other tragic characters such as Oedipus or Hamlet. Dr. Faustus who sells his soul to Lucifer in exchange of twenty four years of knowledge ought to have some special features in order to be considered as a tragic hero. But first of all let me present Aristotle's definition of a "Tragic hero" and then I will elaborate on each element in relation to the tragedy of "Dr. Faustus".
According to Aristotle, "the tragic hero evokes both our pity and terror because he is neither good nor thoroughly bad but a mixture of both; this tragic effect will be stronger if the hero is better than we are. Such a hero suffers from a change of happiness to misery because of his mistaken choice which is led by his hamarcia (error of judgment). The tragic hero stands against his fate or the gods to demonstrate his power of free will. He wants to be the master of his own fate. He decides to make decisions but mostly the decision making would lead to weakness or his own downfall."
Now according to Aristotle's definition of a "tragic hero" it is time to elaborate on the clues in details in order to conclude that Dr. Faustus can also be a tragic hero according to following reasons:
Firstly because Dr. Faustus as a tragic hero evokes our pity. We feel some form of connection with him because he has a sense of realism. Dr. Faustus makes mistakes which can be also all human condition. He wants to gain more knowledge that is also another part of human condition to learn and understand more. We sympathize with Dr. Faustus because his feelings are similar to other human beings at the end we really want him to repent in order to change his fate radically. We sympathize with him at the end of the drama when it is time for a farewell to his soul. Although he has done many faults but we really want God not to be so fierce towards a human being. He desires:
O soul, be changed to little water drops
And fall into the ocean. Ne're be found.
My God, my God, look not so fierce on me!
( Act V, Scene ii: lines 180-182)
Secondly because Dr. Faustus is a well-known and prosperous character, so the reader notices to his reputation as a well-respected scholar inevitably. In Act I, Scene i ; he calls for his servants and students in his speech about various fields of scholar ship which suggests him to be a prosperous intellectual.
Philosophy is odious and obscure,
Both law and physic are for petty wits,
Divinity is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile;
'Tis magic, magic that hath ravished me.
( Act I, Scene i: lines 107-111 )
His reputation as a scholar has been mentioned both in the beginning and at the end. It is one of the clues to present Dr. Faustus as a tragic hero so that the readers would be able to sympathize with him throughout the whole drama. In the closing lines the scholars put emphasis on this aspect more when they lament about their respectful professor's death.
Yet for he was a scholar once admired
For wondrous knowledge in our German schools,
We'll give his mangled limbs due burial;
And all the students, clothed in mourning black,
Shall wait upon his heavy funeral.
(Act V, Scene iii: Lines 14-19)
Thirdly because Dr. Faustus' mistaken choice, exchange of his soul to Lucifer, results in his downfall. His agreement with the devil blinds him in choosing between right and wrong. In the opening speech, in Act I, Faustus tells that he is skillful in different sciences but he wants to know more.
FAUSTUS. How am I glutted with conceit of this!
Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,
Resolve me of all ambiguities,
Perform what desperate enterprise I will?
I'll have them fly to India for gold,
Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
And search all corners of the new-found world
For pleasant fruits and princely delicates;
I'll have them read me strange philosophy,
And tell the secrets of all foreign kings;
I'll have them wall all Germany with brass,
And make swift Rhine circle fair Witttenberg;
I'll have them fill the public schools with silk,
Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad;
I'll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,
And chase the Prince of Parma from our land,
And reign sole king of all the provinces;
Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war,
Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp-bridge,
I'll make my servile spirits to invent.
( Act I, scene i: lines 79-98 )
Actually the desire for learning is part of human nature but he chooses the wrong way without some sense of guilt. His hasty desire for power and honor did not allow him to repent. He was so confused that he couldn't decide on following the ways of God or the path of Lucifer.
Fourthly because Dr. Faustus wanted to support his own plot to make his own decision. This aspect of his character was as a result of the Renaissance period, unlike the medieval period, the dominance of fate upon human life became as a matter of ignorance. It was time for secular matters. Therefore, the dominance of science shadowed upon individuals thought . Dr. Faustus wanted to take destiny in his own hands to demonstrate the power of free will against fate. A case in point is when he passionately demanded Mephistophilis to:
Go, bear these tidings to great Lucifer:
Seeing Faustus hath incurred eternal death
By desperate thoughts against Jove's deity,
Say, he surrenders up to him his soul,
So he will spare him four and twenty years,
Letting him live in all voluptuousness;
Having thee ever to attend on me,
To give me whatsoever I shall ask,
To tell me whatsoever I demand,
To slay mine enemies, and to aid my friends,
And always be obedient to my will.
Go, and return to mighty Lucifer,
And meet me in my study at midnight,
And then resolve me of thy master's mind.
( Act I, Scene iii: lines 91-104 )
He did not want to be a puppet dancing to the strings of destiny, despite the fact that tragedy functions paradoxical towards human destiny.
Hence according to the aspects which I elaborated on, I can describe Dr. Faustus as a tragic hero. Although he devoted himself completely to Lucifer, never choosing right and making a tragedy out of his own downfall, but I found the drama as an optimistic and didactic one. I believe that Marlowe wanted to teach Christian faith besides a chance for salvation. Marlowe uses the tragic irony of Dr. Faustus as his ultimate intention to illustrate the downfall of a tragic hero.
👉🏻How do we Analyse a poem?
👉🏻How do we Analyse a poem?
👉🏻👉🏻👉🏻👉🏻
TO BEGIN. Read the poem all the way through at least twice. ...
LITERAL MEANING AND THEME. Before you can understand the poem as a whole, you have to start with an understanding of the individual words. ...
TITLE. ...
TONE. ...
STRUCTURE. ...
SOUND AND RHYTHM. ...
LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY.
👉🏻👉🏻How to analyse text....
In writing about literature or any specific text, you will strengthen your discussion if you offer specific passages from the text as evidence. Rather than simply dropping in quotations and expecting their significance and relevance to your argument to be self-evident, you need to provide sufficient analysis of the passage. Remember that your over-riding goal of analysis writing is to demonstrate some new understanding of the text.
How to analyze a text?
Read or reread the text with specific questions in mind.
Marshal basic ideas, events and names. Depending on the complexity of book, this requires additional review of the text.
Think through your personal reaction to the book: identification, enjoyment, significance, application.
Identify and consider most important ideas (importance will depend on context of class, assignment, study guide).
Return to the text to locate specific evidence and passages related to the major ideas.
Use your knowledge following the principles of analyzing a passage described below: test, essay, research, presentation, discussion, enjoyment.
Principles of analyzing a passage
Offer a thesis or topic sentence indicating a basic observation or assertion about the text or passage.
Offer a context for the passage without offering too much summary.
Cite the passage (using correct format).
Then follow the passage with some combination of the following elements:
Discuss what happens in the passage and why it is significant to the work as a whole.
Consider what is said, particularly subtleties of the imagery and the ideas expressed.
Assess how it is said, considering how the word choice, the ordering of ideas, sentence structure, etc., contribute to the meaning of the passage.
Explain what it means, tying your analysis of the passage back to the significance of the text as a whole.
Repeat the process of context, quotation and analysis with additional support for your thesis or topic sentence.
Monday, 8 January 2018
Mrs bennet
[1/8, 10:42 PM] pu ms ayesha: Jane Austen was pre eminently a realist nd procured her characters sketching truthfully n realistically... Her approach towards the minute n minor characters was mere a need...major concern was to be focused on country gentry n tgeir domestic involvement.. She omitted servents, labourers, n even aristocracy some times.. She took in to consideration "Lady Catherine "to depict her arrogance, hautiness, obscenities.... Her art of characterisation seemed static pertaining to on set then it developed wid time
[1/8, 10:54 PM] pu ms ayesha: Here are sumptuous n worth mentioning features n peculiarities of her art of characterisation
1...variety of characters.... In spite of limited range to choose from she has procured a variety of characters (their is huge difference b/w vulgarity of Mrs. Bennet n vulgarity of Mrs. Jennings..
Macaulay compares her to Shakespeare coz of creating variety of characters
[1/9, 12:20 AM] pu ms ayesha: 2 =.universalism of individual characters ....
Great artist always make their way to create characters having universal image as Mr. Bennet represents cynical fathers who shirk their moral responsibilities n Mrs. Bennet universal in fatuous ladies who exibit vulgarity n stupidity
Elizabeth is universal in charm n wit even in pride n prejudice... Wickham is vicar of pleasant looking but avarice n flirt
[1/9, 12:20 AM] pu ms ayesha: 3...she represented her characters dramatically....through their demeanour, actions n speech they reflected their nature n intentions before the writer had commented on them
[1/9, 12:20 AM] pu ms ayesha: 4...she represented her characters through compare n contrast...
Her finest trait to weave the royal robe of novel. Where she compares Mrs. Bennet b Lady Catherine in vulgarity n ostentatiousness
Darcy with Wickham while Bingley is foil to him
[1/9, 12:20 AM] pu ms ayesha: 5...her sympathetic n realistic tone for her female protagonist seems to be her own reflection but its preposterous to assume it that Jane really went through all incidents what Elizabeth suffered
[1/9, 12:20 AM] pu ms ayesha: 6.... Being realist she was strongly loathed idealism
So her world of realism was never disturbd by elopement, romanticism or dejection.... As Elizabeth was an epitome of charm, wit n sagcity yet she proned to pride n prejudice
[1/9, 12:20 AM] pu ms ayesha: 7....her quality of delineating complex characters was due to great insight of chart n r
Psychology of mind... She represented characters in an explicit manner, not an implicit one
[1/9, 12:20 AM] pu ms ayesha: 8...she was prone to delineate female charcters excellently rather than male characters her female characters seemed to be more lifelike n striving as compared to male characters which declared her as feminist as well .
Saturday, 6 January 2018
Jane Austin as a moralist. Some points
Jane austens moralism in her writings or in any case related to morality in prid & prejudice
Out line....
First the intro about moralism
& then pursue the remaining portion of the question
Definition of moralism
Principle of judgement of things , good or bad , concernd with mannerism a little
Particular system of values & principles of conduct , the extent to which an action is right or wrong
So here in this Novel of Austen v find so many examples , but when v read the novel v find that austen is not preaching the moralism but making the readers to ponder and gradually build the true image of what v call morality
Lets take a look on this novel
There r many a places where v find vived examples of moralism for instance the first encounter of Darcy & Elizabeth which is not a pleasnt 1 that acctually builds a base in the mind of heroin that darcy is not a good person ,he is highly arrogant
Yup that is true he acctually is arrogant but jane austenz main purpose is not to raise the question of an individual , but she deals with the concern oof a society, the prosperity of a society
In society it is not allowed to intermingle with people of lower rank
As mr bingley said to Jane that his social circule would not allow him to marry a girl of petty belongings
From very first meeting of both the protagonists v find elizbeth'z prejudice being rooted in her mind which gradually develops and this is a shortcoming of a charectr & darcy'z pride that was his shortcoming so first half of the novel contrive of development of both the chrectersbut till the conclusion v find they overcome these deficiencies
So this is the Craftiness of authoress that how initially she grows the things which mostly moralistic people abohr
First elements of abhorrences & then kind of catharsis by bringing them to light that they were wrong in judgement
So many examples r there of moral
Bingley who is being guided by Darcy , cant take his own decision it looks bad and against manners he must take his decision on his own, then the superficial awkward kind of pride in lady Catherine,
The bingley sisters
The vulgarity of mrs Bennet
Carelessness of mr bennet
Collins , a clergyman but deprived of ethics , he is like a fool relates the everydayz events as they were beneficial to religion
The worst of all george Wickham & lydia
Done an act of embarrassment by eloping
But she depicted them so beautifully that a commen reader likes the good acts and despise the bad acts
In fact the act of elopement has not cost the individuals but to society
So by binding them into wedlock presented as a compensation
& depicted in such a way that every reader feel tjat such things should have been done
.....
Its like stories v read diffrent stories and in the end v write morals
I cant explain it bettr then this😜
There r few other things elaboration would reqiur tons of timr
Stdy of characters major minor would be important
Tjat acctually explains almost every thing
"Jane Austen as a moralist"
Jane Austen belonged to Eighteen century literary world of morality nd pursued this very purpose ...yet she didn't endorse n patronize the direct preaching of moral conduct....here v have to define morality as pronouncement which contains advice abt proper behaviour n gives us theory concerning fundamentals of rightness, wrongness, evil n good of society
Then here is a fact that she was not an avowed moralist nd negated the conventional method of morality
As she was bound to pursue the Eighteen century moral vision so she did her job exquisitely
She emphasised on mannerism nd censured the direct preaching in Pride and prejudice... She criticised always in a way that was unnoticed but attained the purpose of targeting goal perfectly... Here i recollect the iceberg theory by Hemingway who endorsed not to give deatailed view of his preaching but to hide it under cover n let his readers to booklore
So was she... She made her readers to booklore n perceive their own views about moral
Here are salient features of objectivity which she achieved as moralist
1..She despised tge conventional preaching of morality
She emphasised on mannerism n pointing out anto social elememts such as jealousy, animosity, vanity, hypocrisy, pride n prejudice
3....she embarked on the frailty if bad upbringing of children n points out how Mr. Bennet confined him to librerary n avoid his responsibilities as a father n nonsense of Mrs. bennet which ended up in elopement of Lydia wid Wickham
4....here a very stupendous quality she exibits that she didn't idealised her characters n shatters their follies n flaws.... Even the mainp protagonists hero n heroine of the play can be seen having grudges n developing pride n prejudice against each other but by tge time their sensible nature n sagacity made them sort out these issues n overcome their frailties n follies
5...she meditated nd thoroughly justified the standards of marriages
according to her moral codes marriage is all about developing a compatibility n trust b/w 2 ppl, esteem, good n mutual affection is tge essence of successful marriage
In case of Elizabeth n Darcy we see they fall into gulf of animosity 1st but aftr evaluation of themselves they decided to get married but the result was contrast in case of Lydia n Wickham where amorousness resulted in Elopement of them n soon the avarice nature of Wickham was revealed upon all ...so by comparing n contrasting 4 couples Austen accomplished her mission to make ppl aware of possibilities of making successful marriages
6...last but not the least point we must discuss about the hindress.... Stumbling block in the way of lovers in form of Hypocrisy... Here comes (Aunt of Darcy) Lady Catherine who wants Darcy to marry her daughter as both if families belonged to elite class so she was there to make Elizabeth to refuse Darcy as she belonged to middle class but Elizabeth denied her suggestion
[1/6, 11:16 AM] pu ms ayesha: In concluding lines i want to appreciate her role as moralist as she lashes out n shatters the follies n frailties of society in a discreet way... N rebuked the social evils,...rampant at her time... So her views n conclusions are still valid for our time n age
Her comedy novel arises from conflict of illusion n reality her craftsmanship, her diction, her discreet way to rebuke frailties ,her avoidance of romantic elememts such as individual n natural beauty ...made her a blossom of 18th century nd Forerunner of 19th century of romanticism